Influences: The Popcorn Gallery

Influences:

New Work by Glen Echo Park Faculty & Students

February 24 to March 25, 2018, Saturdays & Sundays, 12 to 6 PM

Artists’ Reception: Sunday, March 4th, 5 to 7PM

A new show venue for me, the Popcorn Gallery, and I am pleased to be included along with my long-time fabulous instructor Jordan Bruns, jjbruns.com and one of his latest assemblages of still life objects. It’s a wonderful concept and a great way for the viewer to get a good understanding of what was actually seen by the artist since it is literally right there for you. In addition, the complete paint palette is there and it includes the remnants of color mixings used in the actual painting.  True visual art lovers get to see the whole kit and caboodle. The impact of these assemblages is best experienced in person.

My artwork is also one in a series I’m calling Fleeting Fluvial’s. These are born of a walk on a Florida beach as the tide was going out and my fascination with the patterns and forms the water was carving into the sand as it moved back towards the ocean. These shapes and forms were in motion as the water flowed and therefore existed for only moments in time. I was lucky to be there to capture the formations on my camera and later bring them back to life to be seen by others through this artwork. It is wonderful to be envisioning that day on the beach as the was sun sinking towards the horizon, showing off these beautiful shapes and patterns, as I work to reproduce what I experienced that day. Here’s a picture… but seeing the artwork in person is much more interesting.

 Fleeting Fluvial #2, Mixed Media, 30 x 30, Sara H. Becker

 

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The Glen Echo Park Partnership is pleased to present Influences: New Work by Glen Echo Faculty & Students. This exhibition showcases recent work by Glen Echo Park resident visual artists and faculty members, paired with work by selected students. With each combination, glimpse the influence of instructor mentors on the development of students’ technique.  Works include painting, drawing, photography, sculpture, jewelry and other mediums available through Park classes and studios.

Presenter: Glen Echo Park Partnership for Arts and Culture

Location: Popcorn Gallery

Admission: Free

Contact Phone: 301-634-2222

http://glenechopark.org/exhibitions

 

Points of View at Gallery B

The 7 Palettes Show at Gallery B will be on Exhibit until February 4th. We are looking forward to the champagne reception this coming Sunday which will help close out the exhibit. Come visit and see all new original artwork including my newest sand paintings, Fleeting Fluvials.

via More Pieces for Gallery B Exhibit! 

 

New Year, New Show

I am proud to be a member of the group that has been selected by the Bethesda Urban Partnership to exhibit in their Gallery B once again for the month of January 2018.

“Points of View”

This year’s exhibit features the landscape and everyday life, as individually envisioned by the artists, who often show their art together as:

The Seven Palettes

The private reception (with champagne) helps close the exhibit.  2 pm to 5 pm on Sunday, Jan. 28.  PLEASE JOIN US!

A public reception (with chocolate) celebrates the opening of the exhibit. 6 pm to 8 pm on Friday, Jan 12. 

A design seminar ~ “How to Integrate Artwork into Your Home”,  1 pm to 3 pm on Sunday, Jan. 21.

Come meet the artists — Sara Becker, Nancy Butler, Helen Gallagher, Caroline Orrick, Ann Rossilli, Penny Smith and Maureen Ward.

Gallery B Regular Hours:  11 am to 5 pm, Wed. – Sat.,  Jan. 10 – Feb. 3, 2018.                      7700 Wisconsin Ave, Courtyard Suite E, Bethesda, MD 20814

One of my newest pieces: Fleeting Fluvial #1, will be on exhibit. This artwork is most impactful seen in person. And I hope to have a second Fleeting Fluvial, now in progress,ready on opening day. Stay tuned! And please come to one or more of the 3 events we are hosting this 1st month of 2018.

 

Many Shows to Prepare For

The last quarter of the year gets busy with many things and for me that includes art shows with several groups of which I am a member. Currently, the annual show of the Olney Art Association is on exhibition at the Kentland’s Museum in Gaithersburg, Maryland. The opening reception was a pleasant evening with piano music and an interesting talk/critique with the judge. He commented that he is not interested in abstract artwork which made sense considering his choices for awards. Artists that participate in various shows with different art organizations come to learn that judging and jurying is largely subjective. Its a great honor to get an award but at the same time there is no sense getting demoralized if you don’t get into a certain show because the jury process can be very arbitrary. Anyway, I was pleased my artwork, being fairly abstract, got into the show. I was able to ask him for comments on my artwork being that it is an abstract and he had mentioned he doesn’t prefer abstract art. He immediately said my piece was not abstract! That was a surprise to me but I understand his point of view because there are some vegetation inspired forms in addition to the other less concrete shapes and lines. My artwork had a nice placement on a wall between a window and the corner so it filled its space quite well. This show is on view through the first week of December. The next group show that I will submit artwork to is the Yellow Barn Studio Gallery later this week.

  Kentland’s OAA Exhibit 2017

Depth’s Unknown

Its time for the annual MPSGS Show and here is a sneak peak at my entries that were all selected for the show. These are some of my favorite scenes from my trip to Alaska in June.  I was overwhelmed by the beauty of the snow topped mountains and glaciers in Glacier Bay and the many, many other places that I saw along the Inside Strait and Denali National Park.  Alaska is a truly wonderous place full of animals and undisturbed nature.  There are so many scenes I could choose to paint and I may also enlarge one of the miniatures to a large scale painting.  So many ideas, so little time!

84th Annual Internationa Exhibition of Fine Art in Miniature

2017 Exhibition Info

Artist Awards Ceremony and Tea — Nov. 18, 1-4 pm
Opening Reception — Nov. 19, 2-4 pm
Exhibition — Nov. 19, 2017, through Jan. 6, 2018

The Mansion at Strathmore
10701 Rockville Pike, North Bethesda, MD 20852
301-530-0540
Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday: 10am – 4pm
Wednesday: 10am – 9pm
Sunday: 12 – 4pm
Closed Monday and Holidays

Working on multiple projects

Some months go by and a lot of work gets done but nothing actually finished.  This month the large Great Falls, Virginia, painting continues to evolve in the studio.

In addition to studio time, I have been plein air painting a couple of times a week.  Good starts on a few paintings will have to be finished from memory and photos in the studio.

plein air, may17

And then, after I had my fill of representational paintings, I started messing around with a  small abstract that I had started a while back. That was fun too!

Large Artworks, Bigger Bolder

April has been a month for big paintings. I finished a commission of a Garrett County farmer on his beloved tractor. It was a surprise gift from a good friend. It measures 36 x 24 and will be hung in the gathering space of a large barn.  I enjoyed painting this image from a 10 year old photograph.

Also, this month, I’ve taken on the challenge of upsizing a previous artwork. The original was painted en plein air at the VA outlook of Great Falls. It is 16 x 20 and was painted in 3 hours or less.   The new one will be 36×48. Now that’s a good size painting! Luckily, I still have a photograph that I took onsite. It will help me with some of the details that are only suggested in the original. Great Falls is an excellent subject for a large painting. It practically requires it. I’ve grown to love this river after growing up nearby and spending many days in and around it. The Falls are truly breathtaking when viewed in person from both the VA side and the MD side. I have previously painted the view from the MD side so I am very comfortable with this mighty subject.  I will update the blog as the painting progresses. I am using the biggest paint brushes I have!

Another month of work.

This piece, Fluvial Fan, has proven to be a challenge in getting the colors right.  I’ve enjoyed working with the stucco media and creating all the textures for the sand. The tricky part has been how to color the sand. Its been spray painted several times with various colors in the beige, sand, off white shades. Then, I tried high flow acrylic paints in several different color combinations to add accents in some places. I wasn’t quite getting it to where I was satisfied until my colleague suggested spray painting the whole thing over AGAIN, in white. From white it became easier to manipulate the colors into the variations I was striving for. The textures in the sandy areas hold small puddles of paint and create a nice effect. The next challenge is to get the underpainting for the water area (which will be poured epoxy) correct. It needs to be muted somewhat because the epoxy will magnify the color and could brighten it too much. In this most recent phase the colored ink, mixed in with a lot of water, came out too red. I will sand it down and refine it some more. Hopefully, it will be ready for the last stage, adding epoxy soon! Since this is the first in a series, I am taking extra time to get it right.  The next painting will flow much faster, I hope!

In the pictures below, the 1st one shows the stucco media finished with hand applied paint over the lighter tan colored spray paint. The 2nd picture shows how the painting evolved after spraying the whole thing white, applying colored glazes and experimenting with the water section.

I will let this project rest a bit while I start on a new project, a commission piece. The person commissioning the new piece will be presenting it as a gift to his friend. This will be a large painting, 24 x 36, and done from a photograph. It’s great to be busy with so many painting projects!

Mardi Gras

Today is the celebration of Mardi Gras and therefore a day that brings colorful images to  mind. My thoughts of color choices for a new abstract painting I’ve begun work on is proving to be a challenge for this composition. Sand and water are the inspiration for this new piece so the color choices would seem to be limited to a certain range. However, the artistic license I choose in punching up the color or changing it altogether are my dilemma. I am trying a few things as I deliberate my decision. Here are some renditions of what I have been toying with.

First pass.

 

 

 

 

 

Second pass

 

 

 

 

 

 

  My inspiration photo was taken while walking on the beach in Dayton Florida. The tide was going out and beautiful configurations of sand were being created and erased in just a few minutes time. I was astonished to find out from a friend, who studied Geology, that these short lived lines in the sand had a name, Fluvial Fans. The term also pertains to semi-permanent land (mud) formations also created by water flow.

I am having a ton for fun working on this piece. More detail to come on where I plan to take this piece. Happy Mardi Gras!

 

 

 

Local Color, Gallery B

A new exhibit titled Local Color will be on exhibit at Gallery B in Bethesda for the month of January. I along with all of the 7 Palettes will be showing recent artwork depicting the scenery and impressions that were inspired by our beautiful Washington metropolitan area. You will see familiar sites as well as others that maybe a little more obscure.  Here are a few of my artworks:

Taking the Back Roads

Please join us for a private champagne reception on Sunday, January 8th, 2017 from 2PM to 5PM.

Gallery B is located at 7700 Wisconsin Ave, Ste E, Bethesda MD 20814